I use a vga cable to connect from an Acer Aspire 5517 laptop to a 23" Polaroid HDTV. The problem is that when I insert the vga cable into the laptop the resolution on the laptop changes and when it does it pushes all my desktop icons over to the left side, forcing me to rearrange them when I disconnect the cable from the laptop. Removing the cable restores the original resolution but does not replace the icons to their original positions. How can I avoid having to rearrange them every time?

Are you setting it up as dual or single? Does your laptop automatically turn off the screen when you plug in the cable to a TV ?

No, it doesn't. I'll elaborate but first a little background info. When I insert the vga cable into the laptop prior to booting, the sign in screen is shrunken horizontally when it comes up followed by my desktop screen which is also shrunken horizontally with all the icons moved over to the left side. To answer your question, determining where the video is going is done by pressing and holding Fn and then pressing F5. While holding Fn down F5 is then used as a toggle to choose between the laptop only, the monitor only, or both at once as well as different resolution choices. The problem is that the laptop resolution changes as soon as the sign in screen appears if I've inserted the vga cable into the laptop prior to booting. If I wait until it boots and gets the desktop screen the resolution doesn't change upon inserting the cable but when I toggle back to laptop only, it does. I can always get the original resolution back but the icons stay to the left side instead of returning to their original positions. I hope this info helps and thanks for taking time to try and assist me. I appreciate it. Thank you.

A bit of info that I forgot to add before: When I insert the vga cable into the laptop the default position is video through both the laptop and the monitor.

I have Desktop Restore, which is supposed to save my icon layout after experiencing the resolution change and the icon shift originally described in this question. However, Desktop Restore only does a portion of the job. I can always count on about half of the icons to return to their proper positions but the rest are stacked one over the other in the center of the screen as well as a couple of gadgets which are misplaced. Does anyone know of a more reliable add on or gadget that will truly preserve my desktop layout when I return to the correct resolution?